Yes

No

Sometimes

Do you grunt or otherwise make noise while hitting? Do you think it helps you? Do you mind when your opponent does it? I never make noise in practice or when cruising in a match. However when playing a physical point in a close match I typically go to a Djokovic style grunt. Also I often punctuate winners with a prolonged "EEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH!", a quick fist pump and a stare at my opponent. I don't think this helps or hinders my game in any way. It is just a natural thing I do when I am really zoned in during a match. I don't mind my opponents making noise in the least. In fact, I find female grunters rather attractive;-).

Do you grunt or otherwise make noise while hitting? Do you think it helps you? Do you mind when your opponent does it? I never make noise in practice or when cruising in a match. However when playing a physical point in a close match I typically go to a Djokovic style grunt. Also I often punctuate winners with a prolonged "EEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH!", a quick fist pump and a stare at my opponent. I don't think this helps or hinders my game in any way. It is just a natural thing I do when I am really zoned in during a match. I don't mind my opponents making noise in the least. In fact, I find female grunters rather attractive;-).

I don't grunt ever in a match but in practice as in just hitting up I will whenever i go for a sick winner, whether it goes in or not that's a different story lol, or sometimes I'll actually just shout out ''POW'' or ''BAM'' for fun

As long as it sounds like real effort and not made up screams for everything including drop shots, lol, it's fine with me. I kinda like the sound some pro males make - like the whine of a high revving turbo - especially when they serve.

Grunting and breathing (exhaling) are 2 different things. Grunting, for the most part, is an affectation that becomes habit, and really accomplishes nothing. Put your hand in front of your mouth and yell as loud as you can, you'll feel very little air on your hand. Now just blow, without any vocalization, and you will feel a lot of air. Exhaling is good, and aids breathing, the vocalization that goes along with grunting does nothing. I've seen many top pros, who grunt when they play matches, make no sound at all in practice, even though their practices are sometimes more vigorous than their matches. Grunting is for show. If it weren't everyone would do it, but they don't.

Grunting and breathing (exhaling) are 2 different things. Grunting, for the most part, is an affectation that becomes habit, and really accomplishes nothing. Put your hand in front of your mouth and yell as loud as you can, you'll feel very little air on your hand. Now just blow, without any vocalization, and you will feel a lot of air. Exhaling is good, and aids breathing, the vocalization that goes along with grunting does nothing. I've seen many top pros, who grunt when they play matches, make no sound at all in practice, even though their practices are sometimes more vigorous than their matches. Grunting is for show. If it weren't everyone would do it, but they don't.

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Ok I should add that I inhale when the opposing players makes contact and exhale when I do. For whatever reason I grunt when I do that.

I sometimes do. I don't really see a problem with people doing it as long as it isn't too exaggerated... e.g. some of the girls I've seen at junior tourneys whose 'grunts' are really more like abbreviated screams

I make a kind of Muuuuuuh... sound when I hit groundstrokes. Not very loud, I don't think it distracts my opponent, I just find it helps my timing. The only time I make a lot of noise is when I mis-hit the ball, then I do a howl of anguish. On the rare occasions when my shanks / mis-hits land in, this probably amounts to a hindrance.

It is rude. It is disrespectful to your opponent. Eye balling an opponent and purposefully giving an extra loud grunt after hitting a winner serves no other purpose than to antagonise your opponent. They'll have no respect for you. They won't want anything to do with you off the court. Your reputation will suffer.

Pro players put on theatrics, but that doesn't mean that behaviour is appropriate or worthy of emulating.

And what part of that 13 min video do you want me to look at? While Djoko is a gracious loser, some of his winning theatrics make me want to puke and are certainly no role model I'd encourage any player to copy.

It is rude. It is disrespectful to your opponent. Eye balling an opponent and purposefully giving an extra loud grunt after hitting a winner serves no other purpose than to antagonise your opponent. They'll have no respect for you. They won't want anything to do with you off the court. Your reputation will suffer.

Pro players put on theatrics, but that doesn't mean that behaviour is appropriate or worthy of emulating.

And what part of that 13 min video do you want me to look at? While Djoko is a gracious loser, some of his winning theatrics make me want to puke and are certainly no role model I'd encourage any player to copy.

How old are you?

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I am 17. I honestly don't understand why you are getting so worked up about this. It's just a bit of funny theatrics. My opponents just kinda laugh it off and keep playing. In fact, many of my opponents do similar sorts of stuff (and I just laugh it off and keep playing). No one loses respect and no reputation suffers. The only people who occasionally get annoyed are older guys with severe sense-of-humor-deficiency, but I don't really care what they think since I don't hang out with them. Also, the video has a time stamp at 11:40.

I am 17. I honestly don't understand why you are getting so worked up about this. It's just a bit of funny theatrics. My opponents just kinda laugh it off and keep playing. In fact, many of my opponents do similar sorts of stuff (and I just laugh it off and keep playing). No one loses respect and no reputation suffers. The only people who occasionally get annoyed are older guys with severe sense-of-humor-deficiency, but I don't really care what they think since I don't hang out with them. Also, the video has a time stamp at 11:40.

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Good for you... tennis is a game, it is supposed to be fun, nothing wrong with a bit of fist pumping or whooping when you break serve, hit an outrageous winner, win a set etc. I'm nearly 3x your age and I do it. As you say, it is funny theatrics. If it bothers your opponent then keep doing it... not as gamesmanship but as a way of telling them to get a life and not to take things so seriously.

The only thing which is not cool is celebrating when your opponent makes a bad unforced error or a DF, but I think you know that.

I thought that I didn't but someone took a video of a match and I did sometimes make noises - not terribly loud (camera had a good microphone) and not very often. I heard it on return of serves but not on overheads, volleys and most groundstrokes. It was a bit of surprise to me.

I am 17. I honestly don't understand why you are getting so worked up about this. It's just a bit of funny theatrics. My opponents just kinda laugh it off and keep playing. In fact, many of my opponents do similar sorts of stuff (and I just laugh it off and keep playing). No one loses respect and no reputation suffers. The only people who occasionally get annoyed are older guys with severe sense-of-humor-deficiency, but I don't really care what they think since I don't hang out with them. Also, the video has a time stamp at 11:40.

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Well if your 17 and playing juniors, I don't see too much problem with it..as juniors is serious competition and you're not really out there to make friends. If it's an NTRP tourney or rec tennis of any nature, I really can't stand people who do that. Rec players aren't good enough to show those theatrics and I'm always embarrassed for them when they do something like that. It's like "dude, calm down you're playing a 4.0 tourney... you're stare-down would be wiped off your face by a competitive 12 year old junior girl"

Also, I guarantee you that your opponents aren't "laughing it off", but instead either letting it boil inside of them or like you said, do the same thing back to you as a form of revenge and venting their anger. I think the stare-down and generally being an a** can really mess with the psyche of some opponents and force them to play worse than they would have otherwise.

I grunt a little when I feel the game is serious. It's just my tendency to expressive my aggressiveness and it helps my game a lot. I also feel it helps with timing as it feels very decisive with each swing!

Ok I should add that I inhale when the opposing players makes contact and exhale when I do. For whatever reason I grunt when I do that.

Regardless, it seems to help me remember to breathe.

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I often emulate the Azarenka breathing pattern -- without her high-decibel emanation on the exhale phase. On most shots she appears to inhale when the incoming ball bounces and then exhales (forcefully) on contact (or during her forward swing). He inhale sound is much quieter than her exhale sound. For a much quieter variation of the Azarenka pattern, I will sometimes inhale with a soft "ah" at the bounce and then exhale with "ha". This ah-HA pattern only occasionally results in a grunt during my forward swing.

What's obnoxious is screaming, which I've only heard from WTA players, though, I'm sure there are others. And they tend to do it on every shot. How come nobody had to scream/grunt in the old days?

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Now a days, tennis grown to become more competitive. Players would probably want anything that would give them an advantage over the game which could involve screaming ( to distract opponent or **** the hell out of them ) , doping , silicon on strings , etc. I would assume that this is the reason why its more common now than before.

What's obnoxious is screaming, which I've only heard from WTA players, though, I'm sure there are others. And they tend to do it on every shot. How come nobody had to scream/grunt in the old days?

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There actually was grunting in the old days. Jimmy Connors, in the early 1970s, was more pronounced than players that came before him. In the 1980s, Andre Agassi would often grunt on big shots. One of the first of the very high-decibel grunters was Monica Seles (who turned pro in the late 80s).

Seles probably hit the ball harder than any female pro player previously. After complaints at Wimbledon in '92, she was asked to stifle her grunting in the finals. Seles, who was very dominant in both '91 and '92, lost decisively to Graf in that Wimbledon final. After that loss, Seles vowed that she would never again be pressured to suppress her grunting -- she felt that it destroyed her breathing, timing and confidence.

Note that many of the loudest grunters came out of Nick B's academy -- the list includes Larcher de Brito, Seles, Sharapova, Agassi, and the Williams sisters. It has been suggested that grunting was encouraged at Nick's academy as a tactic used to distract opponents. If the grunt is "voiced" during ball contact, it is possible that it can also obscure the sound of the ball contact. The sound of the ball contact can often provide an opponent with very early cues to the nature of the contact (spin, speed, and how clean the contact is).

I am 17. I honestly don't understand why you are getting so worked up about this. It's just a bit of funny theatrics. My opponents just kinda laugh it off and keep playing. In fact, many of my opponents do similar sorts of stuff (and I just laugh it off and keep playing). No one loses respect and no reputation suffers. The only people who occasionally get annoyed are older guys with severe sense-of-humor-deficiency, but I don't really care what they think since I don't hang out with them. Also, the video has a time stamp at 11:40.

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I'm not worked up about it. If its done in good humour and with a smile and laugh that is completely different to the kids who do it thinking their junior comp match is the final of Wimbledon. I've seen plenty of kids and young adults behave like this and very quickly they are very isolated in their local tennis community.